


Crimson Spring

by HaziestShade



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark, Edeleth, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Sothis is done with your shenanigans, Time Travel, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:54:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24772702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaziestShade/pseuds/HaziestShade
Summary: Byleth goes back over and over searching for her happy ending. She is searching in all the wrong places.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth/Rhea
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Crimson Spring

”Mother...you're here." She chokes out, Byleth recoils. Even now she still...she still...can’t see her as herself. Still she clutches Rhea to her chest, noting with horror that Rhea no longer breaths.

"Please don't leave...not now. Please don't leave me." She begs, her voice cracking. They'd gone so far, killed so many, and Rhea would die less than a week after her rescue. "Please."

Rhea said nothing, her face serene and her form horribly still. Gently, so gently, she sets her on the marble floor. Something bitter rises in her throat, and she rushes behind a pillar, retching up blood and bile.

_ I must tell Seteth...Flayn…. _ The thought is painful. She walks numbly past the shattered stained glass windows, the scuffed mosaics, the rubble.  _ Edelgard why? Why did you have to do this? To destroy all this? _ Fury coils inside her with nowhere to go.

She remembers Caspar dead at the hands of the Death Knight, Dedue's head half severed by an ax, Bernadetta burning on the scaffold, and Edelgard…” _ I wanted to walk with you” _ and then she's grasping at her throat, panting, a mad fever overcoming her.  _ You can stop all of this...save those who died. End it all. _ A voice reminds.

She takes the pulse in her hands, knowing what she needs to do. Knowing how to save her students. A bright light surrounded her, searing her skin, making her scream. She closed her eyes against the light and yet she can see it through her eyelids and screams ring in her ears as she forces the world to GO BACK.

She awakens at the foot of a throne. A familiar figure perched on a throne. "It won’t work Byleth." She rebukes gently. "You can't save them all, you cannot cheat fate."

Byleth shakes her head. "That wasn't...that wasn't fate." she insists. In her mind she sees her father, a dagger plunged into his back.

Sothis perched her cheek on her hand. "It could have been." She sighs wearily. "But mortals are such stubborn things. Very well. Try your hardest, I'll be here when you fail."

With that Byleth is dismissed, tendrils of light weaving around her like rushing water, the sound of the ocean breaking against rocks in her ears.

She awakens on her bedroll, her father above her. "Hey. Time to wake up."

_ Father _ . She wants to cry yet the tears won't come. "Papa." She said hoarsely.

He gave her a look of concern. "Were you having that dream again? " He asked.

Byleth nods, the same choked feeling in her throat. "I was dreaming of a war." She sees Hubert felling Ferdinand with a horrible laugh, Dimitiri pierced by half a hundred spears, she sees Edelgard's army pouring into Garreg Mach.

"Massive armies clashing on a vast field, right? There hasn't been a battle like that in over three centuries…" Jeralt says, gruffly.

Byleth choked down a bitter laugh.

"In any case, just put that out of your mind for now. The battlefield is no place for idle thoughts. Risking your life is part of the job for mercenaries like us. Letting your mind wander is a sure way to get yourself killed." Byleth stares at him, the familiar words drowned out by her own thoughts.

"Right…" She says dazed. Soon they'll be at the door. She'll be at the door.

She knows then what she has to do. It's a mercy, what she will do. She takes up her sword. After the sword of the creator, all other swords feel wrong, heavy, and stiff, but it will do the job.

She was the Ashen Demon, who killed without feeling, without remorse.

One of her father's men rushes into the tent, a look of panic on his face. "Jeralt! Sir! Sorry to barge in, but your presence is needed." Byleth unsheathes her sword.

She follows her father to the door. She's there. She looks innocent, wide sharp eyes and ribbons in her hair. But she remembers the empress, the horns on her helm and the blood-stained ax.

She is the ashen demon. She lunges forward piercing Edelgard through the heart.

"Ah-" She cries softly as Byleth holds her by the shoulder. Edelgard stares at her, betrayal, in her wide violet eyes.

"You-"

"Why-"

"Gods-"

They all shout at once, Byleth pulls out her sword, lowering Edelgard to the ground. Her eyes are still open, her mouth slightly agape.

She is still and compliant as Jeralt shouts at her in baffled fury, she is silent as Alois looks at her in horror, she allows herself to be chained hand and foot, the chains chafing at her wrists, her hands still covered in Edelgard's blood.

It was a mercy. She knows that, she's sure of it. She thinks as she's marched to Gharreg Mach. She saved Edelgard from the misery of defeat, it was quick. Quicker than deaths Edelgard had caused. Yet in her head, she hears Edelgard. "I wanted to walk with you." She says, her eyes like daggers through her heart.

She is silent as she is brought before Rhea. Silent as Rhea demands a moment in private. She is taken to a small stone chamber by Catherine. Rhea stares at her with hungry, motherly, eyes.

"Why?" Rhea asks softly.

And Byleth tells her, tells her everything. The war, the Agarthans, the madness that ended it all.

Rhea's face twists in disbelief before settling in it's usual serenity. "My poor child." She soothes. "I'm sorry, you have suffered so." She strokes her hair, pets her cheek. It's comforting, but Rhea's eyes...lovely hungry eyes that ask for more than Byleth can give.

"I will tell the world of Edelgard's treachery. All the world will know of your bravery."

Byleth smiles relieved. She is unchained and her father looks at her like she is a stranger to him. Perhaps she is.

It takes the guards hours to find Hubert, when they do he lunges at her like a rabid dog. Spitting a mix of curses and insults. Rhea looks at him as if he's an insect and seconds later Catherine takes his head.

It was a mercy. She is certain of that, Hubert would not want to outlive Edelgard. It doesn't hurt, she tells herself. She is certain that there is no pain at the death of a monster like Hubert...a monster like Edelgard.

In the next couple of weeks, Emperor Ionius is captured and executed. The Hresvelg line is ended.

Byleth wanders the second floor. She had not known the emperor but she had killed him all the same. She knows which room is Hubert's, which is Edelgards.

Slowly she pushes Edelgard's door open. It's been ransacked, the mattress cut apart, the drawers pulled open, the flowers wilting on the ground.

She steps over piles of books, she searches through the papers beneath the desk. Most are homework assignments, some are reports for the empire, at the bottom she finds a stack of parchment.

Bringing it to the light she sees they're sketches. Decent sketches at that. The subject is a girl who resembles Edelgard, perhaps a little older. Beneath the girl is a sketch of a young boy also with a resemblance to Edelgard. "Agnes, the first sketch is labeled, Otto, labels the second."

A sketch of Hubert glaring at a cat falls out the packet, and Byleth almost laughs. It's strange, she supposes.

She had been Edelgard's class leader, her teacher, yet she had known nothing about her. Perhaps if she had she could've...Byleth forces the thought from her mind.

The room is stifling, her vision blurs and something warm trails down her cheeks. Why? Why did you do it? Why did you make me kill you? A red tide of rage rises in her and she tears the sketches in two, three, countless pieces; leaving them to flutter to the floor like autumn leaves.

She does not become a teacher. Instead, she stays at Rhea's side, dispenses Rhea's justice, and worships Rhea's mother. She leads the Knights of Seiros to Shambhala, the creator sword in hand. She doesn't remember their faces or their cries, just the thrum of the blade as she cut them to pieces.

Jeralt looks at her with pained eyes, Rhea looks at her hungrily, Edelgard comes in her dreams, her eyes full of hate. Sothis doesn't come at all and without her, the world is muted.

She kills Lord Lonato herself, he uses his last breath calling to his son. Another of Edelgard's victims, she is certain.

Byleth leads the knights to the empire slaying every lord who does not submit to the new church rule. She doesn't flinch (She doesn't!) at the horrified stares of her former students when she returns.

Rhea asks if she would like to kill the children as well. "Before treason takes hold of their hearts." She says. Byleth refuses dully and wretches in her room.

Dimitri looks at her with admiration, Claude assesses her like one would a sword. She spares neither of them a word.

She passes the Horsebow moon hunting the Death Knight, the monster who killed Caspar, Edelgard's pet monster.

She finds him in a ruined mansion, stains on the floor faded to a dull brown. They stain the floor afresh, his lance against the Sword of Sothis. She coils it into a whip wrapping it around his throat. He yanks desperately as she pulls. In his last breath, curiously, he calls for Mercedes.

During Wyvern Moon Dimitri leaves the abbey on horseback. He returns on the first day of the Red Wolf Moon with an army. The empire was responsible for Duscur he claims, the church must give him leave to seek vengeance from the Empire. Duscur. The name rings dimly in her mind but she can't find the energy to care.

Catherine tells her of the conquest. The butchery, the massacres, the sack of Enbarr and the few nobles left. In the end the land empire is divided amongst the alliance and the kingdom, it's peasants and lords left to rot in the sun.

They call Dimitri the Butcher King and Byleth tries to care about the terror he has inflicted. She doesn't.

She walks often. Her nights are restless so she walks the grounds of Gharreg Mach.

She finds herself in a ruined chapel, realizing with horror that she's found the location of her father's death. Jeralt had left the Abbey after a last embrace. He tells her he loves her but he does not look her in the eyes and he does not look back.

She wants to cry but her eyes refuse. She closes her eyes, half turning as something clatters behind her. Her eyes shoot open as agony engulfs her.

In desperate horror she sees her stomach dripping crimson. "Ah-" She chokes out as a familiar voice whispers in her ear.

"Did you think you killed all of us? Now die like the dog you are." Kronya murmurs. She pulls out the knife and Byleth screams at the pain, slumping to the ground.

She spends her last few moments in agony and terror as her breathing slows and her vision dims.

She awakens at the throne. "Fool." Sothis spits at her.

Byleth shakes her head. "It should've worked. I should've saved them."

Sothis gives her a dismissive glare and she awakes with her father standing over her.

When Edelgard arrives Byleth stays her sword. When the bandit raises his ax Byleth remains still.

This time she will get it right.

**Author's Note:**

> I've uploaded this fic before and deleted it cause I wasn't really in a mindset to write for it. But hey, I am now.
> 
> Hope y'all uh, enjoy this? It's a little darker than I normally write. Poor Edelgard.


End file.
